JavaScript object wrappers

In JavaScript, there are 2 types of data:

  1. The primitive types (or primitives). There are 7 of them:
    • String
    • Number
    • Boolean
    • Null
    • Undefined
    • Symbol
    • BigInt
  2. The references (or objects).

Primitive types are not objects, so they cannot have methods and they cannot have acces to methods. However, JavaScript makes it seeem possible for primitive types to have access to methods. For example: 

const text = 'SUN';
const new_text = text.toLowerCase();

In the previous code, the variable text is assigned a string (Primitive type) on the 1st line. On the 2nd line, we call the method toLowerCase() on a primitive value, and no error is thrown. How come?

The reason why the previous code works is because JavaScript creates object wrappers under the hood when dealing with primitives. The previous code is actually transformed by JavaScript like this: 

const text = 'SUN';
let temp = new String(text);
const new_text = temp.toLowerCase();
temp = null;

JavaScript created a temporary String object that we called temp. This String object has access to all the methods of String.prototype, just like all String objects. Therefore, temp.toLowerCase() works fine.

Notice that the temporary String object only exists for one statement. After that, it is automatically destroyed (or dereferenced). This process of destroying the temporary object right after its first (and unique) use is called autoboxing.

Autoboxing is also the reason why we cannot add a property to a primitive type. Consider the following code: 

const number = 5;
number.type = 'odd';
console.log(number.type); // undefined

The previous code prints undefined. This is what JavaScript does under the hood: 

const number = 5;
let temp = new Number(5);
temp.type = 'odd';
temp = null; // temp is dereferenced right away

temp = new Number(5);
console.log(temp.type); // undefined

When we try to access the type property of the temp object, it no longer exists since a brand new object has been assigned to it. Hence the undefined.